For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.' Acts 22:15-16
God restored Paul’s eyesight, and then through Ananias, God commissioned Paul. Here is what struck me, and I pray it strikes you as well. Nothing was said about becoming an apostle to the Gentiles, traveling the Roman Empire, or writing what would become the New Testament scriptures. Paul was simply told that he was to be Christ’s witness to all people, telling what he had experienced regarding Jesus Christ.
Sound familiar? It should, as it is what all believers are commissioned to do. Note the following:
We are Christ’s witnesses. We are to testify of Him, not of ourselves, our churches, our favorite teachers, or least of all ourselves. We are His witnesses. We are His representative ambassadors. That means we are to represent Him, as He expects to be represented. We are most certainly not to MIS-represent Him.
We are to tell all people about Christ. None of us can tell all the people in the world, but we can tell as many people as are in our little corners of the world. Let us take seriously the fact that without Christ people are doomed—but that we have the antidote for damnation: Christ and the gospel. Oh saints, let us tell as many as we can about Jesus—not being concerned about what they might think of us we are about their need to hear the gospel so that God might be pleased to save them. And by giving to and praying for missions, we can play a small but vital role in taking the gospel to the rest of the world!
We are to tell what we know about Christ. We do not know everything. We cannot answer every question, but we can tell what we know—like the man whose blind eyes Jesus graciously opened in John 9. He was asked questions he could not answer, but he told what he knew, “I was blind but now I see!” It is good to learn to be able to say more, but in the meantime, let us boldly and lovingly tell what we know!
Go and be baptized. Dear unbaptized believer, how long will you live in disobedience to this?
The heart of Paul’s commission was really no different than ours!